Sexuality, Relationships, Marriage, and Family Life

Megan McCabe, Gonzaga University (Washington)
mccabem@gonzaga.edu

Craig A. Ford, Jr., Fordham University (New York)
cford12@fordham.edu

The Sexuality, Relationships, Marriage and Family section welcomes both paper and panel proposals from across theological disciplines related to the study of sexuality, relationships, dating, marriage, family, parenting, children, single life, and other topics associated with intimate human relationships and/or family units. Preference will be shown to proposals that reflect the conference theme: “All the Ends of the Earth: Challenge and Celebration of Global Catholicism.” However, all proposals relevant to the interests of the section are welcome.

Potential topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The significance of enculturation on Catholic conceptions of family life, singleness, sexualities, and relationships.
• Challenges generated as a result of magisterial teaching regarding local conceptions of marriage/family and sexualities.
• The role of feminist as well LGBT and queer advocacy in shaping new or shifting conceptions of relationships, families, and sexuality within a global church.
• Discourses around intimate relationships and sexual practices that are engaged either positively or negatively within the church and/or in the larger society.
• Interdisciplinary considerations of dating, marriage, families, childrearing in the global context and their significance for Catholic reflection.
• Trends or transitions in Catholic conceptions on singleness, relationships, or parenthood in the last half-century.
• The historical and ethical significance of recent events within the Catholic Church, including the synods on the family and the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetita.
• The awareness that global feminisms have of injustice, violence, and abuse within sexual encounters, relationships, and family life.
• The effects of migration policies on families and relationships in the wake of global nationalist movements.
• Intersectional analyses of race, class, and nation on sexual practices, intimacies, and family structures. 
• The effects that climate change and the globalization of capitalism have on sexual practices, family structures, and the population of the planet.